Online Talk Shows Made for Your Phone

When Oprah abdicated the daytime talk show throne in 2011, Katie Couric seemed destined to fill the void. But she didn't, and media trendsetters are guessing that's because the daytime demographic is shifting to YouTube. Katie Rosman reports on Lunch Break. Photo: Michal Czerwonka for The Wall Street Journal.

By

Katherine Rosman

June 12, 2013 7:33 p.m. ET

Culver City, Calif.

Sidling up to a kitchen table, faux-wood linoleum flooring beneath their feet, four well-powdered women chatted beneath hot studio lights about the topics of the day, including a popular video addressing women's self-image.

As producers aired the video, sponsored by beauty brand Dove, one host dabbed away a tear. Then she read aloud an inspirational quote she said she had found on Pinterest.

In a control room, four directors and producers hovered over keyboards while monitors provided different angles on the set.

"Cue talent!" one called out.

"Ready Camera 2?" said another into a microphone.

What looked an awful lot like a television talk show was actually an online video produced by Maker Studios. Maker has $36 million of venture-capital investment behind it and a mission to become a modern-day studio for YouTube stars. The women and the crew were rehearsing for the second season of "The Moms View." It's a talk show that will anchor much of Maker's lifestyle programming. The second season debuts, the company says, July 11.

Photos: Inside the Studio

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The mainstream popularity of streaming services like Netflix, Roku and Apple TV have made older audiences comfortable with the on-demand watching of TV on devices other than televisions. Now, producers of web-based programming are hoping that Internet talk shows—inexpensively produced and with the familiar look and feel of their televised forebears—will help smooth the transition to the Internet for larger numbers of viewers and consumer-brand advertisers.

The first season of "The Moms View" has drawn 11 million views with 117,000 subscribers to the channel. That reflects a solid start for the show—particularly since YouTube is so heavily populated by younger users. Executives from Maker are now presenting "The Moms View" to consumer-product companies that want to spend their advertising and marketing dollars to reach adults making household buying decisions. The show's producers say the show's viewer demographic is 18-to-30-year-olds.

John McCarus, senior vice president and group director for brand content at the advertising agency Digitas, says he is considering sponsorships with "The Moms View" for clients like Sprint and Whirlpool. "Bets for that target audience are good bets," he says.

Some online talk shows are already proving lucrative. Last July, after noticing that his young sons never turn on the TV, Brian Robbins, a producer and director in Los Angeles created AwesomenessTV, which creates series catering to teenagers on YouTube.

"I started thinking how the next Oprah would probably come from YouTube," he says. Less than a year after he founded the company, its main YouTube channel has almost 570,000 subscribers and 115 million video views. Last month, DreamWorks Animation SKG announced it was acquiring AwesomenessTV for $33 million.

Recently, IMO host Audrey Whitby, 17, was at Disneyland when three young fans approached her. "I expected them to say, 'You're on 'So Random!' but they said, 'You're from AwesomenessTV!'" said Ms. Whitby. "The world is changing."

"The Moms View," like other shows popular on YouTube, which helped fund its first season, is a program influenced by data and audience-sharing collaborations ("collabs" in YouTube vernacular). Co-host Sharzad Kiadeh, 30, is a former makeup artist with nearly 20,000 subscribers to her YouTube channel. (She is not a mom and is meant to represent viewers without children.) She is joined by Colette Butler, 30, who has more than 400,000 subscribers to her YouTube channel and is the wife of Shay Butler, whose YouTube channel showcasing family life has 1.3 million subscribers and videos that have garnered more than 604 million views. The other two hosts, Kayli Butler, 29, and Carlie Butler, 26, are sisters-in-law of Colette's and have appeared on many of Shay and Colette's videos.

Colette and Carlie Butler moved with their families to Los Angeles from Idaho to seek YouTube fame and fortune. Kayli Butler has come to town temporarily for the same reason but is contemplating making it permanent. "My dream was to be a beautician but I also wanted to start a YouTube channel," she says.

While a televised talk show might draw its topics and guests from celebrities making the rounds to promote soon-to-be-released movies, songs and television shows, "The Moms View" mostly features topics culled from social media, with audience interest already measured. The Dove video, for instance, has more than 50 million views on YouTube. So the show's producers can be assured there is interest in it.

Sommer Poquette, a 35-year-old blogger and mother in Petoskey, Mich., enjoys watching talk shows like "The Moms View" as well as "mom vlogs" on YouTube's MomPulse channel. When she is doing laundry at home, she says she always has a talk show like ABC's "The Chew" or NBC's "Today" playing from the TV, but it's mostly white noise. "I'm actually paying close attention to what I'm watching on my phone or tablet," she says.

Talk shows are well-suited for the Internet, says Kevin Law, founder and chief executive of Uncommon Content, a production company that creates television-length talk shows that it airs on its YouTube channel as it seeks deals with other media outlets. "It's better to see two people talking on a small screen than to watch 'Star Wars' on a phone," says Mr. Law, whose company's online talk show "On the Table with Eric Ripert" was licensed for distribution by NBCUniversal's new Esquire cable network last month.

Television talk-show producers know they need to compete in this increasingly competitive arena, too. "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" began posting clips in 2006. Its YouTube page now has 5.6 million subscribers, the 16th-most subscribed-to YouTube channel, according to the analytical site VidStatsX, and 1.9 billion video views. When Britney Spears appeared on "Ellen" last fall, "Gangnam Style" singer Psy dropped by to give Ms. Spears a dance lesson. On YouTube, the video of the gambit has been viewed nearly 53 million times.

"Ellen" doesn't just post clips from the televised show. At the request of advertisers, it has started producing content specifically for YouTube, such as the video clip sponsored by toy maker Mattel Inc.MAT-0.98% where Sophia Grace Brownlee, 10, and her cousin Rosie, 6—themselves YouTube sensations—conduct an interview with actress Reese Witherspoon and convince her to wear a tutu similar to theirs.

"There is a whole generation of people who aren't sitting at home on their couches but would love Ellen's content," says David McGuire, executive vice president for current programming at Telepictures, which produces the show.

As part of Yahoo'sYHOO-2.00% expanding portfolio of originally produced video shows, the company this March relaunched its daytime-like talk show, "Daily Shot with Ali Wentworth," in which the actress interviews celebrities in irreverent three- or four-minute clips.

Ms. Wentworth, who is married to George Stephanopoulos, co-host of ABC's "Good Morning America," says she likes the quick pace and accessibility: "I always joke with my husband and say, 'Oh he's on TV. That's so last year.'"

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